USAT reorg

I find the concept of "must read" quaint. You might be first with something, but within five minutes everyone else has it and it does not matter to me whether I am learning about the trade rumor from the writer who broke it or someone else, I just want the factoid.

I completely understand why they do it, but I still think it's beyond silly when, for example, AP sends a Saints bounties story last night and feels compelled to include, "ESPN first reported the scheduled meeting between the league and Williams." Honestly, I do not give a shit who was the first to report something as trivial as that.

There is no one -- and I mean no one -- Morgan can hire or fire who is going to turn me into a regular USA Today reader. If they have something cool tomorrow, you're going to tell me here and then USA Today might get a click from me that one day. Or I may just say to myself, OK, according to someone on SportsJournalists.com, USA Today is reporting that A-Rod's right arm fell off as he rounded second base -- wow, let me see if yankees.com has video.

Not that we should stop trying, but there is no one I "must" read. I read what I choose to read based on personal preferences.

 

I always remember hearing that the two best columnists on deadline were Lopresti and Wilbon.

 

F_R, I used to think the same thing about Yahoo. I only went there to kick fantasy baseball butt.
Never looked at anything else.
He totally changed that.
I still click on ESPN's homepage out of habit for quick headlines, but I read Yahoo.
Totally agree on Lopresti. He's one of the more underrated columnists in the country. Always clever and different, especially during big events when so many people are writing the same story.

 

I've seen Lopo in action. He doesn't seem stressed out at all. Sometimes I'd swear I saw in the hallway, and then five minutes later, he'd have a column written. A good one, too. A pro's pro if there ever was one.

 

I didn't necessarily mean "must read" in that sense. I was thinking more along the lines of -- and I'll go back a few years so I'm not perceived as leaving anyone out -- Peter Gammons in his Globe heyday. Gammons and his Sunday baseball column? Must-read for the avid fan, or local beat writer.

 

Lopresti is awesome in that he has about 3-4 possible ending points, depending on how much space you have available for his column.

 

ContentOne is still around but mostly geared to Gannett papers now.

 

On cue, Robinson and Pat Forde (how did I fail to mention that get??) deliver the goods on Syracuse, which announced it self-reported possible drug violations 2 hours after the Yahoo story appeared.
You can read the original on Yahoo or the rewritten version crediting Yahoo on USAToday.com and ESPN.com. There's a separate thread on the story.

 

Who is that?

 

My goodness -- the Romenesko report on this is way off. Someone tells him "the online managers" are in control and making the print people all re-apply.

What "online managers"? There's a new management team over the whole group -- Beusse, Morgan, the BNQT people, etc. Whoever's casting it as print-vs-online is so far behind the times that I hope he/she saves everyone the trouble and packs up now.

Good grief.

 

Bumping up because we should hear who's filling the top editors' jobs this week.

 

I guess they are not bringing anyone in from Cincinnati.

Do we think they are looking first at people from other Gannett papers?